Residents in the Balbithan area of Kintore have had to throw in the towel on their bid to improve their slow broadband. Encouraged by BT and Aberdeenshire Council they made an application for a Community Fibre Partnership which would co-fund the provision of fibre connections to the premises.

If, like us – you are more than 1200 metres from a fibre connection and are struggling with a connection that drops as low as 1.5 MB, when people just a mile or so away are enjoying up to 50 MB – then you may look to community fibre partnerships as a potential solution to bring our broadband into the 21st century.

With the Scottish Government committed to providing 95% access to “superfast” (24-30 MB) broadband in the new year, many Kintore households who find themselves more than 1,200 metres from the exchange are still stuck with broadband well below the recommended household minimum of 10MB.

As the Scottish Government’s 2017 target looms for 95% of households to have access to superfast broadband, a survey in the Aberdeenshire town of Kintore suggests the digital divide is widening. Read More...

The Scottish Government has set a target for 95% of the population to have access to superfast broadband by 2017. The recent experience, where ‘long lines’ are being classified as upgraded, even though they receive less than half the government target of 10MB, makes us keen to understand the state of broadband services in and around Kintore.

Two years ago the Kintore exchange was upgraded to provide ‘superfast’ fibre broadband. Those of us who were struggling with slow speeds and throughput failures rejoiced at the thought of faster, more reliable broadband.

Continuing from the last edition of KK, there is a Flood Recovery plan published by the council and to contribute to that the Community Council were asked to submit our top three priorities for flood prevention in Kintore.

It is quite obvious from the recent survey on broadband in Kintore and the comments received at kintore.org.uk and on our Facebook page, that a substantial number of people are having problems with broadband disconnecting intermittently.

A survey conducted in Kintore reveals widespread dissatisfaction with broadband services in the town. While some of those who are able to get fibre broadband enjoy speeds over 65MB, a significant number on conventional wired broadband report their service appears to be deteriorating.

This week we have received the welcome news that many in Kintore has been waiting for. After years of problems with slow downloads and services like BBC iPlayer being almost impossible to use at peak times, Kintore is due to get high-speed fibre broadband this summer.

In the last month, Kintore’s broadband infrastructure has been creaking under the strain of the growing number of households and businesses in Kintore. Broadband outages and slow speeds seem to be affecting a large proportion of the population.

Kintore is to get a faster broadband service by summer 2012. BT has made the announcement that Kintore will be among 47 communities in Scotland to receive the new service that promises speeds up to 20Mbps.

As the autumn chill takes over from last week’s Indian summer, more people are turning to the internet for their evening entertainment and that, in turn, means that Kintore’s broadband infrastructure comes under greater strain.

Following a report by the BBC which showed that parts of the Aberdeenshire had some of the lowest broadband speeds in the UK, North East Conservative MSP Nanette Milne has urged the UK Government to include Aberdeenshire as a pilot area for broadband improvements.